Marcus, the Sapphire Emperor, had his war council interrupted by a messenger bursting into the room, panting heavily. “We’ve just received word from the army, Simona and her group were captured and taken away!” She wheezed.
Marcus cursed internally, but didn’t let his unease show. “How did this happen?” He asked. “I thought we had protocols in place to prevent groups from being isolated.”
The messenger fumbled with a bag at her waist, eventually withdrawing a bundle of papers. “Um, it would seem that no alarm had been sounded, and the rest of the army did not notice anything wrong until Simona’s Stairway to Heaven was activated. By the time they reached the encampment, the battle had ended, and…” the messenger paused, brow furrowing as she read the papers.
“Some sort of gargantuan root system had spread across the camp, and was moving, seemingly bringing things back towards the center.” She said. “And, before the soldiers could get to wherever the roots were heading, they vanished without a trace. It sounds far-fetched, but we have pictures of the rather extensive damage that was done to the camp, and it seems to check out.”
“Put the material on the table, if you would.” Marcus said, watching the young woman carefully as she did. Once she was finished, he dismissed her and turned back to his war council. “Inspect those for signs of tampering.” He instructed.
His court mage complied, scanning the documents for any traces of magical traps or tampering. “They’re clean.” She announced.
Marcus took the documents, quickly scanning through them. “This was almost certainly the work of Rose or Amelia.” He said. “No known spells match the description of what was reported, and something on that magnitude couldn’t be made by any random spellcaster.”
“I concur.” One of his generals, Gallus, said. “There was clearly a fight with Simona, and she lost. As far as we are aware, the Swarm has few people capable of standing up to someone at the level cap, and those two are the only ones of those who would be able to end the battle so decisively.”
“What are the odds that Simona manages to resist their conditioning?” The royal treasurer asked. “She is a strong-willed woman.”
“Nonexistent.” Marcus said flatly. “Alisha was turned into a sycophant who almost worshipped the leaders of the swarm. If they could do that to her, then no one can overcome this conditioning; we should assume the swarm has gained yet another powerful asset.”
“We’ll have to re-evaluate our strategy.” Gallus said. “No more detached units of elites, not unless we’re willing to put multiple high-value combatants in one camp.”
“First we have to determine why an alarm wasn’t raised.” Another of his generals, Octavius, said. “Depending on their methodology, it may only be worse to centralize our forces again. And, if we are unable to figure out what happened with the alarm, I believe it would be most prudent to keep our most valuable people in reserve until we have a critical mass of them.”
Marcus looked through the documents again. “Our mages scanned the site, and they were able to detect trace amounts of mental magic. It would seem some sort of powerful spell had been cast over the area, and if we assume Amelia was there…it might not be out of the realm of possibility that she put the whole camp bar Simona to sleep.”
“How would that be possible?” Gallus protested. “To teleport in, cast a spell of that magnitude, then the root spell, and then teleport out would take so much Mana as to be impossible, even for her!”
Marcus set down the report, giving Gallus a flat look. “Read the print out of her status again.” He said. “Read that and tell me it’s not possible for her. She would have to expend almost everything, but if she took Rose along and had her cast the root spell, then it would be completely reasonable.”
“But, of the spells we know, the math on the Mana costs –”
“I’d be surprised if she’s using any spell we know.” Marcus snorted, cutting Gallus off. “She tore through the wards of the meeting place before any of us could even sense that magic was being worked, and doing that, teleporting five people through the greatest wards ever made, took only seventy thousand Mana. If we extrapolated using the spells we know, that should take millions. With Amelia, assume something ‘impossible’ like this is well within her capabilities.”
“Assuming Amelia did put them to sleep, simply removing the detached camp system and keeping them in large groups would solve this particular issue.” Octavius said. “As powerful as she is, putting tens of thousands of people to sleep is simply not possible. If it was, then we would already have lost the war.”
“And how will we handle information security?” Gallus asked. “If the rank and file determine the locations of our greatest fighters, then that will immediately become known by the swarm the moment even one is captured. Even if we can keep the fighters in question safe, that gives the swarm time to prepare for their presence, which could be disastrous.”
“I think Octavius is correct, and we should withdraw the majority of those over level two hundred and fifty.” Marcus said. “Once they all have been gathered here, we can send them back into combat in groups large enough so as to not be vulnerable to an attack like this. Or, at least, not vulnerable enough for the fight to be finished before a signal can be sent and reinforcements can arrive.”
“I will get the instructions drafted immediately.” Octavius said, pulling out a sheet of paper and a pen.
“Back onto our previous topic…”
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Like they had been every day for the last week, Lia and Simona were training under Rose’s watchful eye. The spars had been, predictably enough, pretty one-sided. Simona had better stats and more experience in combat than Lia did, so the only thing keeping the battles even slightly even was the fact that Rose kept imposing restrictions on Simona.
And it was here that Lia understood exactly why Rose had been so adamant that Lia couldn’t come on the mission to capture Simona; the power Lia borrowed from the relics Alisha had absorbed simply wasn’t enough to make up for the differences between her and the truly strong. She had never been on a battlefield of this caliber before, and had no way to truly get what trying to do so meant.
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Still, she was determined not to give up. She was, slowly but surely, lengthening the time she could hold off Simona, growing incrementally more used to Alisha’s strength. And today she was receiving a beatdown, like every other day, occasionally following an instruction as Rose gave it.
“Lia!” Rose yelled, voice crisp and clear. “Use the Stairway to Heaven!”
Before Lia could even process the fact that she didn’t have that Skill, the instinctual part of her had already moved to activate it. And, to her surprise, it worked. She took a step, and a golden step appeared right above the floor where she would have landed. It wasn’t so high as to make her lose her balance, but the suddenness of the change threw her off.
It seemingly threw Simona off, too, as she stared down at Lia from her own Stairway to Heaven, a confused expression on her face. “When did you learn that?!” She asked.
“I have no idea.” Lia said. “I didn’t think I could but when Rose told me to I just did it out of instinct!”
“That’s because I got the Skill from Diligence just now.” Rose said smugly. “And because Lia is targeting me with Pride, she gets it too.”
“This is weird.” Lia said, taking a tentative step into the sky like she had seen Simona do so many times before. “How do you control this?”
“Just run however you want.” Rose said. “The steps should always appear under your feet at the perfect time to keep your stride.”
“Right, um…” Lia said, taking a few more hesitant steps, then taking increasingly bold ones as she ran around in the sky. “Wow, this is pretty neat!”
“Watch your Stamina.” Simona advised. “Stairway to Heaven guzzles Stamina like nothing else.”
Lia paused, checking her Stamina, then descended. “Um, wow, you weren’t kidding, I can’t keep this up for too much longer.”
“Usually, you’re supposed to sap Stamina from the people below you to fuel it.” Simona said, stepping down to the ground herself. “Makes it a real pain to train, though. Or, made it a real pain to train.”
She glanced over to the side, where a group of converted monsters were loitering, acting as convenient batteries for the purpose of the Skill. “Still, it’s kind of odd that you weren’t automatically getting some from the monsters, the Skill doesn’t turn off automatic mode until later levels.”
“If possible, Pride evolves the Skills I copy and makes them maximum level.” Lia said. “So, I guess I needed to somehow specify?”
“Lucky.” Simona said. “It makes the Skill really frustrating to use at first, because you end up with a lot of friendly fire, but I guess you get to skip that.”
“Does Stairway to Heaven evolve?” Lia asked.
“No.” Rose said. “Most capstone Skills don’t.”
“Well, that’s fine, I’m sure it’s strong enough.” Lia said. “So…we sort of stopped in the middle there, do we want to restart, or…?”
“Let’s call it here for the day.” Rose said. “Alisha is waking back up soon, and we’ll want to talk to her. Simona, go see if Ophelia or Nailah are available to spar. If neither of them can, then just go to the dungeon and practice more with your new abilities.”
“Got it.” Simona said, then turned to Lia. “Thank you for sparring with me once again, my Queen. You really are improving far quicker than I expected.”
“Um, no problem, and thank you for the compliment. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
Simona nodded, and left in search of more sparring partners.
Once she was gone, Lia and Rose headed back home. “We’re back!” Rose called out.
“Welcome back!” Amelia said. “Here to pick me up to deal with Alisha?”
“Yeah.” Lia said. “I figure we’ll just do it in the same place as last time.”
“You two do that, and I’ll have dinner prepared for when you get home, okay?” Rose said, heading off towards the showers. “Love you, see you in a bit!”
“Love you too!” Amelia said, catching Rose and giving her a kiss before she left.
“Me too, of course.” Lia said, walking over and giving Rose a kiss of her own.
Lia and Amelia left the house, and few minutes later they found themselves in one of the meeting rooms. “Alright, I’m gonna wake her up early.” Amelia said. “Just so we don’t have to wait. Is that fine?”
“Before you do, please tone down her conditioning somewhat.” Lia instructed. “Just reduce the pleasure it gives her when she becomes more like an object. I’m going to have her detox from me for a bit, so hopefully we won’t run into the ‘acting up problem’ we were worried about.”
Amelia nodded and cast a quick spell. A moment later, Alisha shifted on Lia’s waist. Am I back? She groaned.
“Yes, you’re back. Why don’t you take your human form and we can talk?”
Alisha lethargically left Lia’s waist, shifting back into her human form and stretching. “That was…an experience.” She said.
“Was it as good as you hoped for?” Lia asked. “Be honest here, please.”
Alisha was quiet for a long moment, then shook her head. “No. I’m sorry my Queen, but I don’t think I’m capable of something like that long term.”
“There’s no need to apologize.” Lia said. “Personally, I prefer you more as you are now than when you were…whatever we call that state.”
“Really?” Alisha asked, looking up at Lia. “You really think so?”
“Of course.” Lia said. “To be entirely honest with you, I’m relieved that you think this way; I wasn’t a fan of you completely giving up your individuality for me.”
There was another long silence. “Oh.” Alisha finally said. “I…was under the impression that, so long as it was my decision, you didn’t care what I did with myself.”
“I mostly don’t.” Lia said. “As long as it doesn’t affect other people at all, and doesn’t hurt you, I don’t mind what you want to do. But…when it comes to erasing your own consciousness…that’s different. I wouldn’t want anyone to do that, no matter the benefit.
“I think…I think you need some time to cool your head.” Lia continued. “You worked yourself up into a state where you thought that something like this was good for you, and I’m afraid that if you continue at this pace that you’ll just hurt yourself. So, why don’t you take a month’s break from me, from…well, being an item in general.”
“But, my Queen,” Alisha protested, “what about you?! If I’m not an object, I can’t provide you with my buffs!”
“She has a point, Lia.” Amelia said. “You were just starting to get used to things, too.”
Lia sighed. “Fine. Take one of your sub-bodies, not your main body, and make it into my sash. I’m going to block your consciousness from it at all times for this month, but I’ll still use it. But, for the rest of this month, I need you to stay in the form of something humanoid unless it’s directly required for a task, and that’s an order. If, after this month, you’ve been good and stay yourself, we’ll talk about returning your main body to my side.”
Alisha frowned, a piece of her foot breaking off and shifting into Lia’s sash. It creeped towards Lia, but Lia blocked Alisha’s presence from it before it could reach her, instead picking it up and tying it on herself. “I know it’s not what you want, but I want you to remember that you are more than just my equipment, you’re a person.” Lia said.
“If you insist, my Queen.” Alisha sighed.
“I do.” Lia said. “Now, you’re dismissed. I forget if you have a home here, but if you don’t go claim one and get set up; I’d like your main body to reside there this month.”
Alisha gave a nod, then left the room.
“You think it’ll work?” Lia asked.
“To some extent, yeah.” Amelia said. “It’ll take a bit to work out of her system and get to the new normal she made for herself back when I first placed the conditioning on her, but she should be back to baseline at some point. After that…I don’t know, she may relapse, she may not, it’s up to her.”
“Good enough.” Lia said. “Now, let’s get back home, I can’t wait to see what Rose is cooking.”